Volume 38, Issue 2, Fall/Winter 2018

Nathaniel Van Yperen

Pages 75-91

DOI: 10.1353/sce.2018.0034

Nature Elicits PietyJames Gustafson among the Wolves

This essay explores James Gustafson’s theocentric ethics for the work of constructing an adequate Protestant Christian ethic of the wild. Two critical questions arise in conversation with his ethics: (1) When the category of natural evil is rendered incoherent, what are the significant consequences for piety in Christian ecological ethics? (2) How does Gustafson’s theocentric ethics, which emphasizes experience, help us to refigure gratitude in ecological ethics? The essay explores these questions in the context of the debate over the reintroduction and conservation of wolves in the American West.